I give Crazy Skewers 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. My wife and I really liked this place. We thought all of the food was good to great and service was friendly and excellent. Your mileage may vary - some of our friends love this place too while others haven't been so impressed. So, I'm just adding my opinion to the Yelp review pile, again. I guess the mixed reviews about this place show, based on Crazy Skewers' 3.5-star average rating with 48 reviews (at the time of writing this review).
This place serves Chinese skewers (chuan or chuan'r) in the same style as 90 Kabob (https://www.yelp.com/biz/90-kabob-chamblee), Beijing Kabobs (https://www.yelp.com/biz/beijing-kabobs-doraville), King Skewer (https://www.yelp.com/biz/king-skewer-doraville), and Kochi Maru (https://www.yelp.com/biz/kochi-maru-doraville). All of these are on/around Buford Highway, Doraville, and Chamblee. Based on my experiences, Crazy Skewers compares favorably to the competition. Among this group, Crazy Skewers and Kochi Maru are my favorites, followed closely by 90 Kabob. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these. Admittedly, I do have a slight recency bias for Crazy Skewers.
During our visit, Crazy Skewers offered well over 30 different kinds of skewers from Beef (5 skewers for $8.99) to Taiwanese Sausage (1 for $5.99). A few of the more interesting options included Lamb Kidney (1 for $4.99), Beef Scalded Aorta (5 for $9.99), and Pork Intestine ($3 for $6.99). In addition to skewers, the menu featured a variety of Chinese soups - including a Lamb Organ Mixture Soup ($15.99) - cold dishes (e.g., Spicy Beef Tripe, Mixed Wood Ear), "main" dishes such as rice, noodles, dumplings, and buns, Chinese hot pot ($20.99-33.00), grilled vegetables, Chinese fried food (e.g., Stinky Fried Tofu with Pork Floss - the table next to us ordered one of those), and malatang and malaban ($15.99-16.99). The latter two being an additional variation of Chinese hot pot.
Ordering is done via fill-in paper form menus. Needless to say, there's a lot to choose from. Here's what we ordered:
Blackboard Special
* Oyster - $7.99
Soup
* B5. Potato Noodle - $12.99
Charcoal Grilled Kabob
* C1. Special Lamb Kabob - 5 skewers for $11.99
* C12. Chicken Skin Kabob - 5 sticks for $6.99
* C16. Pork Belly Kabob - 2 sticks for $6.99
* C21. Bacon with Enoki Mushroom Kabob - 2 sticks for $7.99
Grilled Vegetables
* V1. Grilled Eggplant - $5.99
* V4. Chives - $6.99
* V5. Grilled Garlic Kabob - $5.99
We enjoyed everything. Everything was delicious. All of the kabobs listed above were excellent. My favorite was the Chicken Skin Kabob. I recommend it. It was super tasty with some nice, fat, melt-in-your-mouth mouthfeel. I think you have to go with the Special Lamb Kabobs as well because they're a staple at this restaurant. Generally, all of the ingredients seemed fresh and good quality. The Special Lamb Kabobs were seasoned, and we were served a special chili powder spice mix seasoning (with peanuts) before our meal began as well. Good stuff. Overall, the skewers were savory, flavorful, and addictive. The different meat textures were appetizing.
The manager warned us that the Oysters were huge, so we ordered only one. She wasn't kidding. The Oyster was ginormous. I believe it was baked with butter, garlic, and spices, and topped with a bit of cilantro. Yummy.
The manager recommended the Potato Noodle and said it was something the restaurant is known for. We really liked it. It was a filling, spicy noodle soup packed with flavor. Ingredients included tofu, fishcake, baby corn, bok choy, and cilantro, among other things. The noodle texture was delectable. The noodles had the same thickness as udon noodles (relatively thick).
Like everything else, the Grilled Eggplant and Chives were just full of flavor. If you like eggplant, I highly suggest ordering Crazy Skewers' version. They split a whole eggplant in half and then season and cook/char it. It's mouthwatering. The Chives were quite chewy, but strangely still quite good. Maybe they should cut the Chives into smaller pieces or serve it with scissors or a knife.
The ladies who served us - the aforementioned manager and a lone server - were both great. They were nice. It was busy when we visited on a Wednesday between 6:30 to 7:30pm. Despite how busy it was, our entire order came out fast.
This is a small, but not tiny, restaurant. I estimate they have seating for about 30 customers, all movable tables. The atmosphere is casual. I think the illuminated artwork, from the edgy storefront sign outside to the colorful and bold graphic art inside, is a lot of fun. I like it a lot.
Crazy Skewers opened in March 2020 (https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uIZinB2aa/). It replaced humble mom-and-pop shop Champion Snack House (https://www.yelp.com/biz/champion-snack-house-doraville). It's located next door to popular Tea Top in the Peachtree Pavilion (H Mart Doraville) shopping center (https://www.yelp.com/biz/peachtree-pavilion-doraville). read more